Tesla Sues Ex-Optimus Engineer for Allegedly Stealing Trade Secrets
Tesla has filed a lawsuit against former employee Zhongjie “Jay” Li, alleging he misappropriated trade secrets from its Optimus humanoid robotics project to start a competing company.
According to the complaint—filed Wednesday and first reported by Bloomberg—Li is accused of stealing confidential details about Tesla’s “advanced robotic hand sensors” and using them to found Proception, a Y Combinator-backed startup developing robotic hands.
Engineer Allegedly Took Tesla Data and Researched Startup Plans Before Exit
Li, who was employed at Tesla between August 2022 and September 2024, allegedly transferred proprietary information to two personal smartphones. The filing also claims he conducted extensive research on humanoid robotic hands and venture capital funding during his final months at Tesla.
“Less than a week after his departure, Proception was incorporated,” the lawsuit states. “Within five months, the company announced it had successfully developed advanced humanoid hands—designs that closely resemble those Li worked on at Tesla.”
Proception’s website describes its mission as creating the world’s most advanced humanoid hands to transform human-robot interaction.
TechCrunch has contacted both Tesla and Proception for comment.
A Delayed Debut for Tesla’s Humanoid Robot
Tesla’s Optimus robotics project has faced a somewhat turbulent journey since the company announced its humanoid robot, the Tesla Bot, in 2021. Although Tesla initially planned to launch the robot—along with other new products—in 2023, Optimus is still in development.
In July 2024, Elon Musk stated that Tesla aimed to begin selling the robot by 2026. However, during the “We, Robot” event in October 2024, the Optimus prototypes on display were still primarily operated remotely by human controllers.
Read the original article on: TechCrunch
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